Coronavirus daily news updates, August 25: What to know today about COVID-19 in the Seattle area, Washington state and the world – Seattle Times

MADRID — Under strain from Europe’s fastest-growing wave of coronavirus infections, the Spanish government cleared the way for more localized lockdowns Tuesday and deployed the military to bolster the country’s faltering attempts to trace infections.

With more than 400,000 confirmed cases since the onset of the epidemic and dozens of fresh daily clusters only days before the school year begins, Spain is grappling to slow the uncontrolled transmission of the virus. At least 28,872 people in the country have died with COVID-19 since February, although the figure doesn’t include many who died without being tested for the virus.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Tuesday following the first Cabinet meeting after the summer recess that Spain’s current infection rate is “preoccupying” but “far from the situation in mid-March,” when his government imposed a state of emergency and a nationwide lockdown.

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MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The University of Alabama has recorded 531 cases of COVID-19 on campus since the fall semester began last week, according to numbers the university system released Tuesday, as officials try to clamp down on student parties, bars and other gatherings that could spread the coronavirus.

The university, which issued a 14-day moratorium on student gatherings last week, released the number of students, faculty and staff testing positive a day after Tuscaloosa’s mayor ordered bars closed.

The university had earlier announced that initial results from a testing program found few students returning to campus on Aug. 19 were positive for COVID-19 but said subsequent testing last week found more cases. Nearly 30,00 students took the entry tests.

“However, over the past week, due to student behavior, we have seen a spike in the number of students who have sought re-testing because they became symptomatic or were exposed to a COVID-positive individual. That trend prompted the decision to take further steps to reduce the chance that the COVID- 19 virus will escalate dramatically,” Dr. Selwyn Vickers, dean of the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s School of Medicine and co-chair of the university system’s Health and Safety Task Force, said in a statement.

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Don’t lick those finger-licking good fingers. For now, anyway.

That’s what Kentucky Fried Chicken signaled to customers Monday as the company suspended the “It’s Finger Lickin’ Good” tagline after 64 years, deeming it “the most inappropriate slogan for 2020″ amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The suspension will affect the slogan’s use in global advertising “for a little while,” the company said in a statement.

“We find ourselves in a unique situation — having an iconic slogan that doesn’t quite fit in the current environment,” said Catherine Tan-Gillespie, the company’s global chief marketing officer.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s coronavirus safety measures call for people to avoid touching their eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands to reduce exposure to the virus.

The number of Americans newly diagnosed with the coronavirus is falling — a development experts credit at least partly to increased wearing of masks — even as the outbreak continues to claim nearly 1,000 lives in the U.S. each day.

About 43,000 new cases have been reported daily over the past two weeks across the country, down 21 percent since early August, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. While the U.S., India and Brazil still have the highest numbers of new cases in the world, the downward trend is encouraging.

“It’s profoundly hopeful news,” said Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious-diseases expert at the University of California, San Francisco, who credits the American public’s growing understanding of how the virus spreads, more mask-wearing and, possibly, an increasing level of immunity.

“Hopefully all those factors are coming into play to get this virus under control in this country that’s really been battered by the pandemic,” she said.

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Jamaica’s Minister of Health says legendary sprinter Usain Bolt has tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

Minister Christopher Tufton said Bolt was aware of the results and his recent contacts were being traced.

Bolt posted a video on social media saying that he didn’t have symptoms but would quarantine.

“Good morning everybody. Just waking up. Like everybody, checked social media and saw that social media says I’m confirmed of COVID-19,” he said. “I did a test Saturday, because I work. I’m trying to be responsible, so I’m going to stay in and stay here for my friends.”

The 34-year-old retired sprinter, who won gold in the 100 and 200 meters at the last three Olympics, is known for his poses — his “Lighting Bolt” became iconic — and of course his post-race celebrations. His speed and charisma made his sport can’t-miss viewing whenever he lined up in the blocks.

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The mayor of Tuscaloosa announced Monday that the city is closing bars for the next two weeks after University of Alabama officials described an “unacceptable” rise in COVID-19 cases that could derail plans to continue the semester on campus.

Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox announced the closures along with the end of bar service at restaurants during a news conference with campus officials.

Maddox said university officials requested the action after unchecked spread of the virus threatens both the health care system and the local economy if students are sent home for the semester to do remote learning.

“The truth is that fall in Tuscaloosa is in serious jeopardy,” Maddox said.
The university did not immediately release case numbers, but school officials said there has been a rapid rise in cases, particularly among fraternities and sororities. The university on Friday had announced a moratorium on student gatherings both on and off campus.

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The hundreds of thousands of bikers who attended the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally may have departed western South Dakota, but public health departments in multiple states are trying to measure how much and how quickly the coronavirus spread in bars, tattoo shops and gatherings before people traveled home to nearly every state in the country.

From the city of Sturgis, which is conducting mass testing for its roughly 7,000 residents, to health departments in at least six states, health officials are trying to track outbreaks from the 10-day rally that ended on Aug. 16. They face the task of tracking an invisible virus that spread among bar-hoppers and rallygoers, who then traveled to over half of the counties in the United States.

An analysis of anonymous cellphone data from Camber Systems, a firm that aggregates cellphone activity for health researchers, found that 61% of all the counties in the U.S. have been visited by someone who attended Sturgis, creating a travel hub that was comparable to a major U.S. city.

Health departments in four states, including South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska and Wyoming, have reported a total of 81 cases among people who attended the rally. Residents of North Dakota and Washington also reported infections tied to the rally.

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The British government came under renewed pressure Tuesday to recommend high school students in England wear face masks, at least in communal areas such as hallways, after the advice in Scotland was changed.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said his government is ready to follow suit and advise a change in certain situations if the medical evidence deems face masks to be necessary in containing the spread of the coronavirus.

“On the issue of whether or not to wear masks in some contexts, you know, we’ll look at the the changing medical evidence as we go on,” he told reporters while on a visit to a shipyard in Devon in southwest England. “If we need to change the advice, then of course we will.”

For now, the advice of the British government, which oversees schools in England, is that face masks aren’t necessary. It points to a recent report from Public Health England that showed very few virus infections during the partial reopening of schools for younger students in June.

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Responding to an outcry from medical experts, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn on Tuesday apologized for overstating the life-saving benefits of treating COVID-19 patients with convalescent plasma.

Scientists and medical experts have been pushing back against the claims about the treatment since President Donald Trump’s announcement on Sunday that the FDA had decided to issue emergency authorization for convalescent plasma, taken from patients who have recovered from the coronavirus and rich in antibodies.

Trump hailed the decision as a historic breakthrough even though the treatment’s value has not been established. The announcement on the eve of Trump’s Republican National Convention raised suspicions that it was politically motivated to offset critics of the president’s handling of the pandemic.

Hahn had echoed Trump in saying that 35 more people out of 100 would survive the coronavirus if they were treated with the plasma. That claim vastly overstated preliminary findings of Mayo Clinic observation.

“I have been criticized for remarks I made Sunday night about the benefits of convalescent plasma. The criticism is entirely justified. What I should have said better is that the data show a relative risk reduction not an absolute risk reduction,” Hahn tweeted.

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A handful of Washington schools opening their doors this fall in defiance of health officials’ advice. The schools, both private and public, are testing strategies for how in-person schooling eventually could look for everyone else. And just in time for back-to-school, the World Health Organization has updated its guidance on masks for kids.

What will happen when Washington state’s flu season collides with the pandemic? Health experts, worried both viruses will flourish, are pushing for unprecedented levels of flu vaccination this fall. Know what to expect.

A COVID-19 outbreak at a Bremerton hospital has grown to 45 cases and is expected to keep widening.

Seattle Art Museum and the Frye Art Museum are preparing to reopen under Gov. Jay Inslee’s latest guidance. Here’s a county-by-county look at what you can and can’t do as parts of life resume.

The virus hit so hard that grave diggers couldn’t keep up in one Brazilian city — and then, unexpectedly, deaths and hospitalizations plummeted. The reversal has stunned doctors and upended their thinking on herd immunity. Also raising big questions about immunity: the first confirmed case of someone who was infected twice with COVID-19.

The southwestern Washington bar checked temperatures at the door and spaced its tables apart, but close to 20 customers and employees still caught the virus. Health experts say it’s one example of how bars are fueling COVID-19 outbreaks.  

The CDC has dropped its 14-day quarantine recommendation for international and out-of-state travelers. Its new guidelines are narrower and rely more on travelers assessing their own chances of exposure.

American Airlines has a new weapon against the virus. It’s gained federal approval to use a surface coating that kills coronaviruses for up to seven days.

Americans weren’t paying much attention to COVID-19, but everything changed when an exhausted couple and their toddler landed in L.A. on the way home from a Mexican vacation. This is the tale of how their frightening journey, not widely known until now, helped launch a frantic race to understand the deadly new virus. 

Angry, maskless people shattered a glass door to force their way into an Idaho special legislative session on the pandemic yesterday. “This is our house,” one man with an assault-style gun pronounced.

As the pandemic drags on, our brains are numbing us to the dangers, psychologists and risk analysts say — and the results can be deadly. It’s worth understanding this phenomenon and how to push back.